NOAA on Virtual Meteora

There have been some renewed interest in the sims created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Second Life®, partly raised by a Linden Lab case study on the NOAA sims.

I revisited the NOAA sims recently and remain amazed as I was when I first visited in 2007 at the manner in which the sims exhibited the possibilities in which governmental agencies could expand outreach to the public - both in providing an educational resource on such vital issues as climate change and creating a sense of transparency in government.

The technology (NOAA worked with Second Life designer Aimee Weber) - even though created over two years ago now - eons in virtual time - still astounds. Among the exhibits is a three dimentional weather map of the United States one could walk onto, complete with storm clouds, rain and lightning, powered by real time data feeds. On the day I visit, I walk among storm clouds hovering along the eastern coastline.

On a separate portion of the principal sim, named Meteora, I stand on the shore as a virtual tsunami takes form and crashes toward me. Nearby, I watch a giant glacier melt in seconds and submerge the pier where I stand as the water level rises.

NOAA has also recreated its Science on a Sphere on the sim - a 3-D globe that can show the movement of ocean phenomena, wind, clouds, temperature moves, hurricanes. The virtual Science on a Sphere allows one to stand on a "holodeck" - as if one were watching from inside the sphere itself - I stand amidst a chaotic swirl of hurricanes and ocean currents.

In a helpful article on Space Today Online, NOAA describes that a goal of the virtual creation is to allow users to "learn about the cutting edge science that NOAA conducts regularly."

According to NOAA, the organization traces its roots to a Survey of the Coast established in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson and currently incorporates various historic agencies and commissions - that ranged from the Weather Bureau to the Commission of Fish and Fisheries. At Meteora in Second Life, I come to understand a little more about the range of issues NOAA is responsible for - I am a meteorologist for a day.

Meteora, I am told, stems from a Greek word that means, among other things, "things high up," "things hovering above, suspended in air". As much as the word might refer to rain and hail and hurricanes, it might also lead us to think of virtual things - of virtual worlds suspended in our mind's eye, looked upon as examples for study.